Playing Clattr
What is Clattr? Clattr is a social storytelling game involving a Storyteller and one or more players. The players are responsible for designing their characters, who will act as the protagonists of the story. Players will decide their characters’ personality, play style, and motivations. The Storyteller acts as non-player characters (NPCs), creatures, and the world as a whole. It is up to the players to make decisions for their characters’ actions, but those hopeful decisions do not always pan out. Oftentimes, the player will have to roll dice in order for their will to be carried out. Simple actions, such as opening a door, high fiving an ally, or walking up steps do not require the player to roll dice. Those tasks are easy enough that you can expect to be successful. Other tasks, like breaking down a door, stealing a coin pouch, or ascending a cliff face are far more difficult and will most likely require players to roll dice in order to succeed. For these rules, we will be assuming your table is using at the very least the Attributes and Stats blocks. Although for most games we recommend also using the Character and Traits Blocks Rolling dice In attempting to interact with the world around them, players will roll dice to see if they are successful. They must roll higher than their opponent, or higher than whatever the Storyteller has determined to meet the challenge. There are six dice in a standard dice set that are used in Clattr - d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. Many sets have seven unique dice, including an alternative form of the d10. Generally, players will roll at least two dice for any action. Weak npcs may only roll one, while strong npcs could roll more - ludicrously more if need be. Taking highest Players roll a lot of dice during Clattr. Though they may be rolling two or more dice to determine an action, only the highest result will be counted. For example, a player is asked to make a perception check. The player has a d10 in perception. She rolls two D10s, the result is a 3 and a 7. The player uses the highest number, in this case the 7, as her perception roll. The exception to this rule is the case of Explosions. Explosions Explosions are when the max result is rolled on a die - a 4 on a d4, a 6 on a d6, etc. When you max out the die, the next highest roll is added on, and the sum of those numbers becomes the result. Explosions stack until a number less than the max of a die is used. For example, a player rolls two d8s, getting a 6 and an 8. The player takes the 8 and adds the next highest number, the 6, to her total. Her final result is a 12. In another example a player rolls two d4s, getting a 4 and another 4. The player would grab a third d4 and roll it as well, continuing to total the die until the player no longer rolls an explosion. Initiative To decide what order in which players and NPCs get to take action; all combatants will roll their Agility + Focus score to determine initiative order. Turns are taken highest to lowest. If two combatants have the same roll, the character with more points in their Agility attribute will take their turn first. If still tied, they will compare the characteristic they rolled with agility. If they are still tied then each will roll Agility again to see who takes the higher turn position. At any point during an encounter, a player can decide to hold their turn. They can then jump into the order later. This will become their new place in the initiative order for the rest of the encounter. Lazarus and Yllester are about to fight the Caretaker and his two dim-witted sons, Wade and Randy. They roll their Agility + Focus to determine their places in the initiative and get the following results. Lazarus rolled an 11 and a 5, so his result is 11. Yllester got a 6 on each of his d6s, so exploded twice. He gets to roll another d6, and gets a 3. All together his roll is a 15. The Caretaker gets an 8 and a 2 on a d8, an explosion, so adds them up to 10. Wade and Randy are both simple henchmen, so will take their turns off the same initiative for the sake of simplicity. Since they are only Rank 1, they roll one die for Agility + Focus and receive a 7. The initiative order is: Yllester(15), Lazarus(11), The Caretaker(10), and Wade and Randy(7). Yllester decides he wants to hold his turn for now to see what Lazarus does. He can jump in any time before the end of the round. Players should always individually roll their initiative, however enemies need not always do so. More often than not when I am the ST of my own games, I place enemies into categories and roll initiative for that category. If players are facing off against a boss, three archers, and four henchmen, I roll initiative once for each, grouping the henchmen and archers together in attack order. Actions During a character's turn, they can perform a set of actions. Conflict Action The most common action a character will take is an attempt to resolve a conflict. Unlocking a door, attacking an enemy, or trying to convince a local to divulge secrets are examples of conflict actions. Free Action Free actions are simple actions that do not require any response or rolls. Actions like a character asking a quick question during combat, drawing a weapon, or yelling a war cry would qualify as Free Actions. Movement Action A movement action allows the character to navigate around a Scene. This can either be taking a new position to engage with another character, or an interaction with an object, like picking up an item from a table Movement and Range Many other collaborative storytelling games have explicit and detailed rules regarding how movement is handled in combat, how close players can be to attack, the distance they can move in a round, variations based on their race, etc. Clattr keeps it simple. Distance, in the forms of both movement and range, are handled by Scenes. A Scene is an area of play dictated by the Storyteller, and is usually a large area, room, or collection of rooms. On their turns, players can move freely within a Scene and interact with anyone else in the Scene, including attacking an enemy, from melee or range distance. The exception to this is if the GM has placed some kind of obstacle that keeps players from moving freely inside of a Scene. The players and NPCs would need to exhaust a round in order for them to move into another Scene. A scene is not always a room. As the Storyteller, you may allocate a collection of rooms in your story, whether they be in a small cabin, a clinic, or a small space ship. You may feel that taking a round to move between individual areas slows the rate of play up too much. In this situation I encourage you to combine smaller areas or rooms into a larger scene for the action and excitement to take place. Attacking and Defending Attacks are made by rolling attack Attributes - Strength or Perception for melee and ranged attacks, respectively. When a character attacks, their opponent is then forced to defend. They have the choice of rolling Agility (to dodge) or Fortitude (to take the hit but shrug it off). If the attack roll is larger than the opponent's defense roll, then the attack is successful. When making a ranged attack, a character my attack an opponent in an adjacent scene. Lazarus is going to attack the Caretaker. He rolls his 2 Perception + Force dice to make a ranged attack with his pistol. He gets a 9 on each of his d12s. Now the Caretaker will roll to defend himself. He rolls 2 d8s, and gets a 2 and 1. This leaves the Caretaker with a defense roll of only 2. Lazarus’s 9 is enough to land the hit. The Caretaker will take damage. For more information on out attributes work and when to combine various Aspects and Characteristics, check out the Attributes Block. Taking Damage When a character succeeds at an attack, the damage dealt is the difference between the attack and the defense. Lazarus’s attack is a 9, and the Caretaker’s defense is a 2. This means that The Caretaker is going to take 7 damage. Whenever a character takes a total amount of damage that is equal to or higher than the sum of points invested in Strength, Fortitude, and Spirit, they receive a wound. See the Stats Block for more information. Now it is the Caretaker’s turn to attack. He attacks with a 12. Lazarus rolls Agility to dodge, and gets a 7. Lazarus takes 5 damage. Lazarus receives a wound for every 3 damage he has taken, so he would receive a wound here. Cleaving Cleaving is a reward for rolling high as an attacker. It is used to attack multiple foes with a powerful attack. When you have more attack than is required to defeat a foe, you can use the excess as a pool to attack another character. This pool can not be used for anything else, nor can it be saved for a later round or action. Yllester decides to take his turn after The Caretaker attacks Lazarus. Yllester attempts to attack Randy. He rolls a 10 and 7, which is an explosion on his d10s, adding them for a total of 17. Randy rolls a 3 to defend himself. This still leaves 14 damage for him to get hit with, which is more than enough to defeat him with his health of 5. Yllester uses 5 of the 14 damage to defeat Randy, leaving him with 9 more to cleave with. The 9 extra points becomes a pool now that his primary target, Randy, is down. He can use this pool to attack another target. To clarify, Yllester does not roll again, he uses the remaining 9 from his attack to use as an attack on the next target Yllester attacks Wade. Wade now rolls to defend himself and gets a 2. He is hit, and defeated. The 2 points to get through Wade’s defense and the 5 points to take out his health means Yllester has used another 7 damage of his pool. He now only has 2 left. He can use this to attack the Caretaker if he wishes, but such a low number may leave him open to a counter-attack. Yllester decides to end his turn here. Ending his turn means his 2 points are lost - they cannot be carried over to a new round. Countering Countering is a reward for rolling high as a defender. If the defender's roll is double or greater than the roll of the attacker, the defender can take an immediate turn to then attack the attacker in response. Counter-attacking can go back and forth multiple times. After all counter attacks are complete, the round continues as if the original attacker just finished their round. It’s Lazarus’s turn again. He’s going to shoot at the Caretaker, rolling his Perception + Force dice. He gets a 1 and 2. The Caretaker rolls a 6. This more than doubles Lazarus’s 2, so The Caretaker gets to immediately make a counter-attack. The Caretaker rolls an attack on Lazarus resulting in a 5. Lazarus defends with a 4, taking 1 damage in the process. This finishes Lazarus’s turn, and the combatants return to regular initiative order. This means it is the Caretaker’s turn despite him having just counter-attacked Lazarus. Advantage and Disadvantage Advantage grants an extra die to the player or NPC for tactical situations. If a character does something to help them meet a challenge, such as hide behind cover from an attack or deal a blow to an enemy while undetected, they will roll with an extra die to bolster their action's chance of success. On his turn, Yllester decides he wants to get behind the Caretaker. He expresses that he wants to work with Lazarus to flank their enemy. The Storyteller decides to reward the two of them with an Advantage over the Caretaker. Now, when Yllester rolls his attack, he will roll an additional die to bolster his chances of success. In some occasions, these become disadvantages. For example, if one party member grapples an opponent, that opponent will roll one less die against all characters attacking or defending against the grappled opponent. Disadvantage can not reduce a roll to less than 1 die. Players can give advantage to other players through the Assist Attribute, if the assisting player can roll higher than half of the Difficulty of an action, they will give Advantage to the Player attempting the roll. Assisting can happen before or after a roll. Resting and Health Restoration Adventuring can take a toll on a character and leave them with a desire to heal the damage they have taken. This can be done in two forms. A Complete Rest, First Aid, Magic, and Alchemy or Technology. A Complete Rest is a period of time where the character does not do anything strenuous, its length is determined by the Storyteller. It can range from an averages nights rest to a week. When a character takes a Complete Rest they remove damage equal to a Fortitude + Power roll, Wounds still apply to this roll. First Aid requires appropriate materials to perform first aid. (Medical equipment. bandages, even some sticks and rope for a splint can work Storyteller permitting.) This is a Cunning + Assist roll. Magical spells and items are another way to heal from damage. Learn more about Spells in the Spellcasting Block. Alchemical items or technology are specific to the Campaign the story teller is trying to run and may be more or less available depending on the story. Difficulty Setting a fair challenge for players can be difficult. When players are hoping to overcome a challenge it is important for the Storyteller to set an appropriate difficulty for players to beat. Below is a chart for recommended challenge rating for players to try and surpass.